The Marauders Last Farewell
by Forever Sirius
Summary: Severus Snape finally goes too far and Remus decides to help his friends bid Severus one last fond farewell. This story is just a lot of fun. The idea came from The Forgotten child when I was writing about a bedtime story that Syndil was going to tell t


The Marauder's Last Farewell  
By: Siriusnutter  
  
Happy the man, and happy he alone,  
He, who can call today his own;  
He who, secure within, can say;  
"Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have liv'd today."  
~*~Horace Odes~*~ John Dryden~*~  
  
May 1978  
Remus looked up at the Ravenclaw girl in front of him, wondering what she could want. He was constantly amazed that she had even given Padfoot the time of day, let alone deigned to be his girlfriend.  
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Syndil asked him, Remus shrugged and looked back down at the book he was reading. "It took a long time for Lily and me to get James and Sirius to realize that they needed to exercise a little discretion if they wanted us for girlfriends. It has been a long hard road and personally I don't want them to mess it up now. You know those two won't be able to resist pulling one last prank on Snape."  
"So?" Remus knew she was right but he had a firm hands off policy when it came to those two and Snape. "If they haven't been thrown out of Hogwarts by now, they aren't likely to be."  
"Yes," Syndil said as if explaining to a small child "but they could finally go too far and land themselves in Azkaban."  
"Syndil," Remus replied with a small chuckle, "I know it is hard to believe from their behavior most of the time, but they do have some sense. Besides, what would you have me do?" He didn't expect an answer but Syndil surprised him again when she shot right back.  
"I don't know," Syndil planted her hands on the library table and whispered, but from her tone she was furious, "plot something so that they are less likely to get caught, like turning his hair Gryffindor colors or something. Anything, but don't just sit there, like a coward, and do nothing." With that she stormed out of the library. Remus was astounded at how that girl could whisper and make you feel like you had just been screamed at. It was quite a disturbing gift.  
"What is this? A wolf without his pack?" Remus hadn't heard Snape enter the library. To help avoid confrontations, he usually tried to be near a group of students if Snape entered; but today was different, today it was just Snape and him.  
"Don't you have anything better to do?" Remus asked with disinterest. "Like, oh, I don't know, work on your Defense lesson?" Because of his poor marks in DADA, this comment commonly made Snape sneer and storm off, but for some reason today Snape merely continued as if Remus hadn't spoke at all.  
"Aren't you gutsy enough to prank with them?" Snape sneered "Is that why you're in here instead of out there? Are you too afraid to misbehave?" Snape was laughing at this last question.  
Remus was utterly astounded; he had never seen Snape confident enough to attack like this, absolutely infuriating. Remus fought to ignore this comment and said instead "You know I think I'll go up to the Gryffindor common room, there is a stench in here all of a sudden." Remus then stood and left the library. He was very glad that he had checked out his book with Madam Pince before sitting down to read else he might have ruined his level-headed reputation by hexing the living daylights out of Snape then and there. There were two people who now thought of him as a coward. Well, it was long past time that he proved them wrong. Maybe he would take Syndil's advice after all.  
~ * ~ June 1978  
Remus couldn't believe that he had lost them. He had kept James and Sirius in his sight all night long but he had been distracted by a Gryffindor girl for a split second and they were gone.  
Remus scanned the crowd hoping against hope to catch sight of them. He was so intent on his task that he didn't see Peter come up to him or hear what he said. It took Peter shaking his arm to finally get his attention. "What is with you tonight? Are you depressed that you don't get to come back and study some more next year?" Peter laughed at his own joke and shaking his head continued "Only you Remus." But Remus wasn't paying him any notice he had caught sight of James across the room. He was walking with Lily, his girlfriend, towards Syndil and Sirius. Great, that has to mean that they haven't done anything yet. Maybe I should just get the ball rolling, he thought. I know all it will take is some innocent comment on my part; just to plant the idea.  
Remus started across the room not even caring if Peter followed or not. "Excellent!" He said as he came up to them. "Are we pranking after all?"  
Remus saw Sirius get the glint in his eye that meant he had mischief in mind. Syndil must have seen it as well because she quickly said, "The only thing he has done is kept me waiting forever!"  
Remus shot Sirius a glare and said gallantly, "Never fear, fair lady. I shall beat him senseless for thee."  
Sirius snorted loudly, "You can always try, Moony." With the girl's attention taken by adults who had come to give all the seventh year students advice before they officially entered the wizarding world, the four friends slipped out of earshot. Sirius then continued, "Our good friend finally has mischief in mind. I know the look in his eyes. It has been in mine too many a time for me not to."  
"Padfoot think who you're talking about," James put in. "This is Moony! He never takes an active part in our shenanigans. There is a reason we put him as look out. He is good at it."  
"Never the less, Prongs," Sirius insisted, "I'm right. What do you have in mind, Moony?"  
"Alright, lean in close you three." Remus was proud of his little plot. It had started rather minor, but had increased in severity for every taunting look or remark he had received from Snape; and now, he could happily say that it would be quite embarrassing for Snape. "Here is what we do. . . ."  
~ * ~  
  
"Hurry up, will you, Prongs! Before Wormtail gets nervous and gives us away." The whole affair was taking longer then Remus had hoped. They had to hurry. It had taken James and Sirius almost thirty minutes to get Snape's trunk out of his dorm room, but then Remus still considered it genius that they were able to get in and out without being discovered, so he couldn't complain.  
"One of you could help me, you know," James grumbled as he lugged the heavy cauldron into the room.  
"What I don't understand is why we aren't coating them with a completed potion." Sirius muttered from where he was pulling clothing from Snape's trunk.  
"I told you, Padfoot it is a completed potion. It just needs a catalyst to set it off. Think about it, where would it be more embarrassing for him- to think he misplaced them or to have them disappear in a public place? Perhaps getting off the Hogwarts Express at Kings Cross Station?"  
James let out a bark of laughter and said, "Moony, when you decide to prank you don't fool around."  
Sirius pretended to wipe a tear from his eye saying, "Our Little Moony is all grown up! I am so proud."  
"Sod off, Padfoot!" Remus growled at his friend, "Or you just might get that beating after all."  
Sirius merely snorted and started coating Snape's cloths in the potion.  
  
"Now, now, kids. Play nice," James said still chuckling.  
The rest of the process passed quickly with each of them taking turns coating an article of clothing. They were done before long, but to everyone's surprise Sirius informed them that he had to cut out as he had "More important things to attend to."   
Seeing the glint in Sirius' eyes, Peter had gleefully informed Remus to "Pay up."  
"What's this?" James asked amused.  
Remus sulked and didn't reply but Peter quickly put in "Moony and I had a bet on which of you would breakdown and propose first and from the look on Padfoot's face; he is going to do just that."  
"I hate to break it to you Peter" James chuckled and Remus' ears perked up. "but I asked Lily last night."  
"Ha! Ha! I knew you wouldn't let me down, Prongs!" Remus whooped. "But let's get this trunk back where it belongs before Snape goes back to his room and discovers it's missing. That way Padfoot can propose before he looses his nerve."   
~ * ~  
"Where is he?" Peter asked coming up behind Remus.   
"Next compartment up," Remus responded quietly, "but it's going to be me and Sirius that spill the catalyst on him. As long as you are one of the first off the train you will have a great view." Remus told him with a smile. "You had best get to one of the doors; we will be coming into Kings Cross in a minute.  
"What are you doing here, Peter? You are supposed to be ready to get off the train. In order to be in a position to preserve this for posterity." Sirius came up to them and handed Remus one of two bottles that had the catalyst in it. Peter ran off heading to nearest door as the train was pulling into Kings Cross station. "Ready Moony?" Sirius asked him. "Snape and his cronies are in the next car up. You get into the one in front of it and I will stay here, that way there will be one of us in front of him and behind him. When you hear their compartment door open you start walking slowly. Don't let anyone get in between you and Snape."  
"Whose plan was this, Padfoot? I know what to do. Just so long as you know what to do if Snape doesn't come out first." With that Remus headed to his designated waiting place and listened for the door of the compartment behind him to open.  
No sooner had Remus got into his position then he heard the door to Snape's compartment open. Luckily, it was Snape that came out first so they didn't have to use their rather obvious plan for correcting their positions.  
Reaching the door without incident, Remus turned, having opened the bottle on the way off of the train. He said to Sirius, "When do you think we will be able to get together next?" As he said this he pretended to loose his hold on the bottle in his hand and it splashed out all over Snape, behind him Sirius didn't bother to hide what he was doing-he flat out threw it onto Snape. "Oh, terribly sorry. Didn't see you there, Severus." Remus made sure to make eye contact with him so that he was all too aware that Remus knew exactly where he was.  
Sirius and Remus walked out of the train station side by side. They laughed hysterically when they heard a lady scream "He hasn't a stitch on!"   
James caught up with them, barely able to walk because he was laughing so hard. "You two missed the best part. Snape..." James couldn't finish what he had started to say and merely held up two fingers and laughed all the harder. "He is now hiding on the Hogwarts Express. Moony, you haven't made any friends today. You had better head out too, Padfoot. I just saw Syndil and she didn't seem too happy."  
"She'll forgive me. She always does. She wouldn't like me half as much if I was a stoic as Moony here." Sirius smiled at his friends and jogged off ahead to try and get out of there hearing before Syndil could catch up and holler at him in front of them.  
"Well, Moony as I said back at Hogwarts, when you decide to prank you don't fool around." He chuckled again. "This was a farewell to remember! Thanks, Moony." That said, James turned and walked towards where Lily was waiting for him and disappeared down the road. ~*~Finis~*~ 


End file.
